When everyone has stopped accusing a television journalist of treason for asking a couple of questions he had to pose in order to do his job properly – and ITV’s Gabriel Clarke is very good at his job – maybe they ought to think about a question he didn’t ask.
Clarke’s exchange with Thomas Tuchel after England’s dramatic extra-time World Cup quarter-final victory over Norway in Miami on Saturday night was a far cry from the bland, watchful question-and-answer sessions that often ensue in the aftermath of matches.
Tuchel was impassioned and eloquent. He was also clearly frustrated by an England performance that was big on guts and grit but lacking in fluency and cohesion. He wanted more and he was right to want more.
‘The result is fantastic,’ Tuchel said, ‘but I’m not happy with the way we played. The commitment is there, we made life very difficult with how we played. Sloppy, not enough precision, not enough repetitions, lots of technical mistakes. We were lucky today.’
All correct. All honest. Jude Bellingham was equally forthright and eloquent when Tuchel’s observations were put to him. England’s outstanding player at this tournament, Bellingham queried whether Tuchel understood how difficult it was to play against opponents such as Erling Haaland and Martin Odegaard in heat so stifling it took the breath away.
This is an aside but I loved Bellingham for that. I loved his spur-of-the-moment defiance and his fearlessness. He is the best thing that has happened to England for a long time. If, once, his body language and his attitude to team-mates were questioned, he has matured frighteningly fast. When Harry Kane retires, Bellingham is England’s next captain.
There is no problem with any of this. Tuchel and Bellingham have been through a lot worse, you may recall. A little bit of creative tension between a manager and his players is not necessarily a bad thing in the build-up to England’s biggest game of football since the World Cup semi-final against West Germany 36 years ago.
But here’s the question Clarke didn’t ask Tuchel, perhaps because he thought it might be impertinent: If England were 'sloppy, not enough precision, not enough repetitions, lots of technical mistakes', whose fault is that? Isn’t that on the coach? Isn’t it the coach who needs to improve?
Tuchel was happy to accept there was no problem with the players’ mentality. And the players have proved at this World Cup that they are mentality monsters. Bellingham, especially, of course. But the rest of them, too. They have fought through adversity time after time.
No, the problem is not mentality or spirit or guts. The problem is in a lack of cohesion and what, at times, has looked like tactical confusion. England have not been purring. They played well for half an hour against Croatia in their opening game and they fought like lions against Mexico in the Azteca but have they played to their potential? Not even close.
So Tuchel can criticise the players all he wants. That is his right. He is a world-class coach. Maybe he’s trying to elicit more from them. Maybe he was using the interview with Clarke to get a message across. But it’s time he took a look at himself, too. England are in the last four at the World Cup. This is where England need him. This is what he was appointed for.
Gareth Southgate got England to the semi-finals of the World Cup, too, but he could not get England any further. He could not get England over the line. England lost to Croatia in the last four in 2018 and were knocked out by France in the quarter-finals in Qatar in 2022. Southgate could not take the final step.
Tuchel was brought in to change that. And now England are back in the semi-finals and Tuchel has, rightly, won praise for his game management against Mexico and for being more proactive with substitutions than Southgate ever was.
He has got England this far but this is Base Camp. This is where his job starts. This is the bit where we have to see the difference he makes. This is where he has to get England over the line.
This is the bit where England have to find a way past Lionel Messi, Julian Alvarez, Cristian Romero, Alexis Mac Allister and Argentina. And England are going to need more than guts to do that because Argentina have guts and togetherness and spirit, too.
Argentina have the beauty of Messi but they are a hard, nasty, physical team who are getting an awful lot of important decisions going their way. It feels as if it is a 50-50 match. It feels like a match where England will have to reach a level higher than they have in this tournament so far to win.
For England to win in Atlanta on Wednesday night, Tuchel is going to have to out-coach Lionel Scaloni. If his players have been sloppy and technically weak, as he says, then it is up to him to fix it.
He is the England coach. If he is unhappy with their technical standard, maybe he should not have left Cole Palmer and Trent Alexander-Arnold at home. He should know his players by now. He should know their strengths and he should know their limitations. The buck stops with him.
Yes, his players made mistakes against Norway but so did he. He spent much of the second half trying to correct the error he made by bringing Eberechi Eze on for Declan Rice at the interval and altering Elliot Anderson’s role. England totally lost control of the game for half an hour.
That cannot be allowed to happen against Argentina or Argentina will take the game away. This has been a magical ride for England and their fans across Mexico and the USA. They are in the semi-finals of the World Cup for only the fourth time in their history. But this is a massive opportunity, too, and it cannot be allowed to slip away.
England’s players must be the best versions of themselves in Atlanta. For that to happen, Tuchel has to be the best version of himself, too. He was one of the best club coaches in the world when the FA snagged him. Now, he has to seize the moment with England. This is his time to show us the difference he can make.
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